Strangely enough, I would turn to the Almighty, and say, "If you allow me to live just a few years in the second half of the 20th century, I will be happy.'
Now that's a strange statement to make, because the world is all messed up. The nation is sick. Trouble is in the land; confusion all around. That's a strange statement. But I know, somehow, that only when it is dark enough can you see the stars.
-Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., I've Been to the Mountain Top
This event builds on years of organizing, not just demonstrations but organizations. It is not an event coming out of nowhere or disconnected from other organizing work. And, none of us see this event as the final event that will solve all the problems the United States is facing" We see Ovtober2011.org as another event building an independent movement. This even is not about "instant' gratification; it is about persistent, well-informed citizen action that demands an end to war and domination by concentrated corporate interests.
-Kevin Zeese, Organizer, October2011.org
"As the thing started
to unfold and there was a shooting at a political camp, which sounds a little
like the Hitler Youth. Who does a camp for kids that's all about politics?
Disturbing."
These are the words of
the former FOX News host Glenn Beck, following the bombing and shooting
in Oslo, Norway that left 76 people dead. Never mind the muddled, hate filled
mix of Right-wing, fundamentalist-Christian thought of Anders Behring Brevik.
Beck draws attention to the Labour camp of young people discussing "politics."
It must be similar to young recruits during the Nazi regime in
Germany, he tells
U.S.
citizens! Imagine - young, political activists! They must be Nazis or leftists
(not right-wing, corporate enthusiasts, right?). Beck apparently forgot or has
never learned that Europe is not the United States!
The former press
secretary to Norway's prime minister, Torbjorn Eriksen, responded: "Young
political activists have gathered at Utoya for over 60 years to learn about and
be part of democracy, the very opposite of what the Hitler Youth was about"Glenn
Beck's comments are ignorant, incorrect and extremely hurtful" (Washington
Post.blog, July 26, 2011)
But that is the way of
the world here in the United
States. For a group of young people from various racial and
ethnic communities to come together to learn a pro-human ideology (democracy)
rather than an anti-human ideology (white supremacy) is disturbing!
Suspect!
Why, we don't do
that here!
No, we do not! We have
Anders Behring Breviks here, without the bombs and the gun, average young
American citizens, who before the identity of the culprit was revealed, spread
their learned hatred of Muslims and Arabs throughout the Internet. Most every
story in the first two days was followed by comments suggesting that "peaceful"
Norway
close its doors to Muslims.
We have, here in the
U.S.,
"camps" of sorts, too, where corporations recruit Black youths and young adults
into allegiance with the good old American "get rich quick or die trying"
ideology. Total loyalty and total immersion is demanded of this population.
Above all, the recruits are taught to think less about the American Past
and more about Master as the provider of "success" and "Black progress."
Recruits come to understand that "all things corporate" is the mantra for today,
the mantra for everyday the corporate sun rises and sets in their world.
Democracy is Corporate Style, "dog-eat-dog," cut-throat competition,
survival of the most robotic, the most detached. The "way out," as they say, is
the way in!
And, yet, these"
camps" of Black youths and young adults are not even suspect, let alone
disturbing.
In the old days, the
slaveholders could spot the enslaved African who could become the most reliable,
the most fearful, and the most complacent candidate for the role of an overseer.
A little training - brutal slashes to the backs of other enslaved Africans or
witnessing the assault of an enslaved woman - could yield a bowed and timid
overseer.
The manipulation of
the human spirit has a long tradition in the United
States!
In a world where
Corporate Style is the way of the world, experience living is
exceptional living! The "powerful," as they wish to be perceived by the
ordinary, are about nothing if not about style.
Kate Middleton's
wedding dress is placed on display and even the economically poorest commoner
and others in the Western world are expected to catch a glimpse of
style.
It is not about
functionality but style, and the corporate thinkers have seen to
it that style is costly. Style has the support of the ordinary
and commoner who have learned to recognize the value of a $300 dollar
pen versus a $1 dollar BIC pen as a matter of desire - desire to be an
individual worthy of other's attention: I am the $300 dollar item and not
the $1 dollar item! I am the extra-ordinary, living the exceptional
life!
I am what I buy; and
I just do not buy anything! I buy style!
So it is with housing.
These days experience living / exceptional living is for you! That is,
Corporate Style!
Democratically
affordable to all? Democratically livable? Not exactly!
Corporate Style
substitutes for "Urban Renewal"; on the surface, it appears to have gone beyond
the foul smell of racism that transformed urban blight, the abandoned buildings,
the demolished public housing, and the vacant lots " into "Gated Communities,"
leaving Blacks and Browns scattered in search of other housing. Experience
living, exceptional living, so it would seem, is racially inclusive:
racism is a thing of the past! Experience living, exceptional living is for you
and it does not ask what you want because everyone wants style.
Everyone wants the appearance of the powerful: everyone wants to
be the powerful!
But, in fact, corporate
style is as militaristic a mission for capital as war - perpetual war. It is
perpetual racism, perpetual exclusion of the poor, working class, and
increasingly, the middle class.
No racial
discrimination, of course. Corporate Style does not
discriminate!
But check out the
building down the street. See our ads: smiling, happy women in bikinis. Follow
the extended arm and the finger pointing out the modern, state-of-the-art
kitchen and bathroom appliances. STYLE!
Appearance matters!
Existing Black management spruces its appearance: hair and hair pieces, straight
and long, dyed, shirts to match ties, and dresses, pants suits that say
S-T-Y-L-E!
It is
Master !
Do you not recognize
him? Or her? - appearing in darker shades these days and even in the
million-dollar-dress-jacket-look with straight long hair and great long nails.
It is the way of the world. A Black young woman of Corporate Style speaks of
"our investment" as if she personally owns it, but she does not understand why
her Masters trust her to work the existing management staff and maintenance crew
to exhaustion. Sixty-day probation for the existing Black management staff and
maintenance crew, and everyone knows power has arrived. Come aboard and
comply or fly with pink slip in hand! "Professionalism," these days,
instills fear!
It is the way of the
world , a world in which Corporate
Style invests heavily to garner the hearts and minds of the younger
generations of Blacks who will not ask questions, who will only desire all
things material to fill tin shells where no hearts exist and where they are
never on their way to OZ until it becomes a mall. The Black Front, "familiar"
faces of today's corporate spirit seeks M-O-N-E-Y! Corporate Style, after all,
is about MONEY and the status associated with its acquisition.
Corporate Style
dissolves the potential for the rise of a Left Front in the U.S. Its spirit of
repression isolates and silences dissent, particularly among Black Americans.
Corporate Style is about exceptionalism alright - of the modern-day
overseers - trapped by the Master narrative of white supremacy that excludes
racial, ethnic, gender, religious, class difference - the
majority!
Fascism is indeed
friendly looking these days: "mothers," "fathers," "grandparents,"
"aunts and uncles," "the elderly and disabled." - t here is no community!
Move to a temporary apartment in the other building! WE are installing the
Corporate Style, exceptional living experience, in your building! Or you may
leave! Adios! Goodbye! Plenty of PEOPLE are OUT
THERE to experience Corporate Style!
Dirty
work for the Corporate Style; storm troopers engineered to produce maximum
profits for the Master. Dirty work! Blood money!
But ferocious
fathers in the animal kingdom tend to kill their young!
Meanwhile" whites in
white shirts with black ties, exiting Mercedes and BMWs and SUVs,
"feel-good-today and every day" as they walk past Black tenants of no
consequence to the powerful and enter nearly constructed offices. Closed doors
and silence. Truck loads of supplies; white contractors too, and buzz saws fill
an otherwise tense atmosphere in which mum is still the
word .
The corporate
"camps" for Black managerial overseers is not disturbing? No, not here in the
United
States, the home of the democratic
experiment!
And not in the city
where the U.S. Constitution was signed in 1787. It is President Barrack Obama's
"kind of town," Philadelphia, where the
over 40% Black population are residents of the Yes, We Can credo. In this city,
where fear limits the small talk to small talk: yes, we can! Obama's the
Man!, where you cannot mention Mumia's name and it is Leonard Peltier - who?, a
sentence or two about Iraq and Afghanistan, the drones in Pakistan, the support
for armed and ethnic killing by "rebels" in Libya is met with
silence. Obama's nod to a militarized police state at home and abroad and to a
corporatist rule everywhere disturbs the unenlightened listener who
cannot believe you! Bring up Obama's name in the same sentence with
reference to a militarized police state, and you are accused of repeating
right-wing propaganda! Or are you one of those extremists the good
secretary of state points to?
After two years of
depressing statistics on Black unemployment and the widening gap between white
wealth and Black wealth, on the declining middle class, on the number of
students no longer able to attend college, on the demise of unions, benefits,
and social services, it is inconceivable to envision 100,000 workers gathering
in the plush Center City area of Philadelphia for days on end as they did in
Madison, Wisconsin or to envision workers in West Philadelphia or North
Philadelphia staging a lock-in as the workers at Republic Windows in Chicago who
demanded to be treated as human beings. You want to be human - go shopping at
the many shops below ground level under the Comcast
skyscraper!
Colorblindness is
manifested in the march of Corporate Style. Genocide and slavery ushered in the
democratic experiment in the United States - for white wealthy landowners. To
use Michelle Alexander's words, colorblindness "prevents us from seeing racial
and structural divisions that persists in society: the segregated, unequal
schools, the segregated, jobless ghettos, and the segregated public discourse -
a public conversation that excludes the current pariah caste" (The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of
Colorblindness).
It is so blinding
the victims cannot see it!
So it is no wonder that
for many Blacks, no matter the class or employment status, materialism has
become the adopted ideology. Materialism is the ideology for the
individual in search of an identity when the thief has absconded with the
substance of his or her humanity. Materialism sidesteps the pain of being Black
in America. In the innocent admiration for
Corporate Style, racism, and more importantly, the recognition of white
supremacy, is invisible.
They say it is the
way of the world, in Philadelphia.
Fighting "the Man" cannot be done! Given in! Relax and your problems are
solved! At least we ain't slaves anymore!
Along with the
signatories at October2011.org, I say, no! No more of this kidnapping of Black
hearts and minds! We have had enough! The corporate way of perpetual race,
class, religious wars, is not the way to experience being human. The corporate
way is militaristic; it is daily living the experience of
death!
We do not accept
Corporate Think! Corporate Style! The October2011 event "seeks to Stop
the Machine and Create a New World"
(october2011.org/node/473). We are ready, writes Kevin Zeese, a worker-activist
and organizer of October2011, "to revolt against the tyranny of corporate
power." We "have had enough."
If you think, "it can't
be done," think: "we'd still be living in caves and not growing our own
food."
African would still be slaves in the United States. Women would not be allowed to vote. All these changes became inevitable after seeming impossible. Indeed, change is inevitable. Our economy is collapsing and government is dysfunctional. This cannot continue. Change will occur. It is our job to direct it to a better world.
If you think, "it can't
be done," think of those low-wage earners, those elderly tenants in Philadelphia being shuffled in and out of doors
because Corporate Style knows what is best for them!
If you think, "it can't
be done," think about those young people who attended the Labour Party camp on
Utoya Island. Honor those who lost their lives and those who are
injured.
Go to October2011.org
and sign the Pledge!
I pledge that if any U.S. troops, contractors, or mercenaries remain in Afghanistan on Thursday, October 6, 2011, as that occupation goes into its 11th year, I will commit to being in Freedom Plaza in Washington, D.C., with others on that day or the days immediately following, for as long as I can, with the intention of making it our Tahrir Square, Cairo, our Madison, Wisconsin, where we will NONVIOLENTLY resist the corporate machine by occupying Freedom Plaza until our resources are invested in human needs and environmental protection instead of war and exploitation. We can do this together. We will be the beginning.
If you are
disturbed by the corporate and military coup that has been in control of
the United States in the last
30 years, then be in Washington
D.C. on October 6, 2011 - and remain committed and engaged
in the experience of living the Struggle!
Editorial Board member, Black Commentator.com, Lenore Jean
Daniels, PhD, has a Doctorate in Modern American Literature/Cultural Theory.
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